Paranormal Belief and Personality

Auton, Pope, and Seeger (2003) conducted a study to determine if personality traits would be predictive of paranormal beliefs. Previous studies had shown two different results, one possible link between paranormal beliefs as a predictor of psychopathology, and another that did not show psychopathology predictor but another way of fulfilling one’s underlying needs. Authors of this study wanted to look more closely at personality traits and whether they had an influence on paranormal beliefs.

Participants were asked to complete questionnaires such as the Personality Research Form, Anomalous Experience Inventory, and the Paranormal Belief Scale. The Paranormal Belief Scale was used to measure the participant’s belief in higher or lower degrees of belief in the paranormal.

Results revealed a significant difference on four of the PRF scales: Abasement, Aggression, Dependence, and Sentience, but overall, the findings were not strong enough to show a relationship between bad personality traits and high or low degrees of paranormal beliefs. Paranormal beliefs were not indicative of a presence in predicting psychopathology in this study.